Distance to the Sun

The Strange Sound That The Sun Makes
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13 years for sound to travel from the Sun to the Earth, if sound could travel in space! Kind of puts that distance in a different light.

Are his numbers correct? Let's check. The sun is 93 million miles away, which translates into about 8 minutes at the speed of light. Since light travels at about one foot per nanosecond, we get:

Time for light to travel from the Sun to Earth		8		minutes
	times	60		seconds	per minute
	times	1	billion	nanoseconds	per second
	equals	480	billion	nanoseconds
	divided by	1		nanosecond	per foot
Distance to the Sun	equals	480	billion	feet
	divided by	5,280		feet	per mile
Distance to the Sun	equals	90	million	miles

My 90 million mile distance is not bad considering I started with 8 minutes which is not a precise time. Now we calculate how long sound would take to travel that distance:

Distance to the Sun	take	480	billion	feet
Speed of sound	divide by	1,125		feet	per second
	equals	427	million	seconds
	divided by	22,791,600		seconds	per year
Time for sound to travel from Sun to Earth	equals	14		years

The difference between his time of 13 years and my time of 14 years can be easily explained by the different temperatures when measuring the speed of sound.

Spreadsheet here.